I know they've reported on other earth-like planets with possible life in the past. I remember reading articles about this type of thing before.

This one reported in 2011: http://news.yahoo.com/found-first-earth-size-planet-could-support-life-181057158.html

Perhaps this is the first time a planet close to the size of earth has been found (closer anyway.) But the ultimate problem is: they are just too damn far away. They probably aren't going to find out if there is life on these planets anytime soon, so for a long time we're just going to be stuck with maybes and possiblys.